Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Bobbi Brown Sparkle Glamour Quad for Holiday 2010

Handmade individually in Italy, each Sparkle Eye Shadow in Bobbi Brown's Sparkle Glamour Quad ($40) for Holiday 2010 will help take your daytime neutral look into late afternoon and evening festivities. These are beautiful sparking neutrals.

Sparkle Eye Shadows are soft (don't drop your compact!); they apply with ease and stay put. The two lighter shades leave behind just a wash of color, while the two darker shades pack a little punch - to accent your eyes so that you are the center of attention in any room!

Sparkle Glamour Quad has a highlighter shade (second from top on my arm) plus three smouldering, "new smokey eye" shadows, all infused with fine, light-catching, wearable micro-glitter (it's not over the top). The quad includes four new shades: Pink Glitter Sparkle Eye Shadow, Smoky Sparkle Eye Shadow, Moonlight Sparkle Eye Shadow, and New Sandy Sparkle Eye Shadow. Although they aren't labeled on the compact, the Bobbi Brown UK site lists the colors.

On Sunday, when I realized the clouds were rolling in, I hurried outside to get some photos (note to self: do not wear a bright yellow T-shirt when taking photos). The photo at right was taken in full sun; the photo below was taken when the sun ducked behind a cloud. I am showing you both so that you can see that the micro-glitter in the shadows is not too glittery. If I can wear it, you can! I applied each shade with several passes on a sponge-tipped applicator, trying to show you the way they will look on your eyelids if applied with an eye shadow brush.

I swatched from the upper left shade clockwise, top to bottom on my arm. Hopefully, you can see in the photos that the darkest brown is the dark chocolate shade in the lower right quadrant of the compact. The other brown, at top left, is a medium brown. The two lighter colors are perfect for the entire lid if you're brave (or have dark skin), or the lower lid if you are like me and try to temper your glow with your eyelashes. That look of shimmer behind the lashes makes your companion look into your eyes!

I think the Sparkle Glamour Quad could be called "Bobbi Brown at Play." Whether you are in a daytime party mood or headed to an evening event, you will want to reach for at least one of these pretty neutrals to enhance your look. I love this compact!

I bought mine at Nordstrom at Tysons Corner. The Bobbi Brown Holiday Collection for 2010 will be arriving at other stores very soon. It should also be available at Bobbi Brown's Web site before long. Those UK online shoppers got a jump on us!

I purchased every Bobbi Brown holiday item Nordstrom had, so as promised, I'll show you one every day this week. There is so much to love - and such a variety of palettes. To think that there's even more on the way to the stores leaves me lightheaded!

Photos by BTiB

9 comments:

Victoria said...

oh, this is so pretty....i might have to get one of these. Thanks for the review!

Charlestongirl said...

Hi Victoria! It is pretty. I'm happy. :)

Clarisse said...

Oh I do love this one! It would do great results for my eyes and if you say it's not too glittery I believe you absolutely!Thank you for this review:-)

Charlestongirl said...

Hi there, Clarisse!

I can deal with the micro-glitter. Those who don't like any kind of sparkles should avoid this one. Are you in the middle ground like me? These shades should look great with your eyes!

Clarisse said...

Yes I'm like you, Charlestongirl, I'm not "allergic" to a little glitter: I just try to avoid the too glittery which suit the younger ones better (and even when I was younger I didn'like too much glitter, its'not very elegant!)I'll definitely buy this quad!

Leonie said...

When I saw this on yhe website I thought it'd be too glittery for me. Then I saw it in person at the counter, and on two people they'd just applied it too, and I was surprised by how natural and pretty it looked. I quickly snapped up the last quad they had left! I do have some minor glittery fall out issues (perhaps someone's got tips on how to apply it to minimise disco-face?), but I'm in loooove.

Charlestongirl said...

Leonie, there are two things you should try first: 1) an eye shadow primer, and 2) use a matte shadow as a base to allow the micro-glitter to adhere to something. You could even try both. There are other tricks, such as using a concealer as a primer. The concealer often grabs the shadow better than a primer, depending on its formulation.

Your skin type will make a difference.

When I can't keep a shadow on my eyelids and instead look like I ran through a parade, I get very frustrated.

Leonie said...

Thanks for the tips!

I'm using Urban Decay's primer at the moment, which receives a lot of praise online, though I'm not 100% convinced yet. Sometimes I think my Dutch 3 euro drugstore primer was more effective.

The concealer tip makes sense - the slight stickiness might glue the sparkles in place. Skin type wise I am normal to oily, at least on the lids. I will try the matte shadow trick as well - I think that's how the Bobbi Brown make up artist applied it in store and I had less glittery fall out then, come to think of it!

The fall out isn't so terrible that I am no longer using the quad, but I figured there had to be a better way! :)

Bonnie C. said...

I love the sparkle in this palette as well as the Crystal Eye palette, thanks for showing us. :-) Yay for Bobbi!